This morning I realized I miss hearing "Sensei, more one! More one!" and other brilliant utterances that my students come up with. "More one" means "one more time", by the way. I guess they translate directly from Japanese, which has a reverse word order for this phrase. Yeah, it's only been a week, but I miss my kids. Funny. I thought I was really glad not to have to see them for three weeks. I don't really miss the kids below 5 years old, but I miss the older ones a lot, even the crazy rowdy ones. I have this one 9 year old student that can be a pretty maliscious trouble-maker. He'd draw on my materials, throw stuff, bend stuff, and I am very surprised he hasn't broken anything in my classroom yet, because he got pretty close a few times. And yet, I like teaching him, because you should see his face when he is concentrating on trying to read something or get a question right. I think he actually likes English a lot, but acts out because the rest of the class does too. Looking at him always reminds me how right I was to adapt the principle of not judging people by first impressions. If I were to teach him 5 years ago, I would hate him so much, and he would hate me so much, because his actions really are threatening untill you find a way to handle him.
I have a few more kids like him, and I always got frustrated with them at first, but I found common grounds with most of them. I have just one kid who is very troubled and uncooperative, and I really don't know how to deal with him because it's not only his personality, I think there is a slight mental problem there as well, but even he is a very good-natured and extremely smart kid. He just has really bad days and even cried once in my class, even though he is 11. I sometimes feel a little at a loss of what to do with him, especially because his class is very small (only 3 students), and he really disturbs the other two kids (who are really smart and enjoy studying English), but I think with time I will get to figure out how to make the situation better even with that kid.
Anyways, I guess I was really busy until today, but today I had a bit more free time, so I started missing the kids.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Siebunkan Bookstore and Sweets
The other day I went to Seibunkan, a local bookstore chain, to get some more stickers for my New Year cards (nengajoo). I blogged before about making my own cards this year. Anyways, while there I was unfortunate enough to wander into the stationary section. The "stationary section" is an understatement. It is one hell of a section, with any art supplies, craft supplies, and, well, stationary, that you can possibly imagine. I was there for a long time, stickers long forgotten, examining their sculpting supplies. I don't know if they have natural clay there, because I made a point of not looking, otherwise I'd be there forever. They do have such interesting polymer clay, of various consistency. Most of it is white, but they also sell Fimo, the clay I have been using in Canada. They also sell colored paints, liquid paints that solidify and look like syrup, and clay of cream consistency (well, it's probably not even clay), that's in a tube and feels exactly like cake icing. That is, until it solidifies, then it's more like rubbery plasticky material. Of course, this visit to the bookstore was the doom of me, as I could not resist trying out the clay.
As I was paying at the counter for the clay and the stickers (I did get them after all), I was thinking, thank goodness I am so bad at kanji, so I don't have interest in buying books... Actually, speaking of books, they have a pretty big English section, with some interesting stuff. Not that I am planning to buy any books there any time soon, but still. I thought that was nice. This store sure beats Chapters. Of course the manga section is enormous too, but I never go in there because most books are sealed, and also because they are expensive. There are quite a few large bookstore chains like "Book Off" (great name, eh?), where you can buy used books in very good condition for rather cheap. For example, one volume of a manga could cost between 150 to 300 yen ($1.5-$3). Not that I bought that many...
Anyways, back to clay sweets, this is what I made.
They look better than the picture, but anyways, you can at least get the idea of what this clay does. It's so interesting, I am very curious about what exactly it's made of.
The tart featured at the top is called "Взрыв на кондитерской фабрике." Not sure I can really translate that properly because it refers to an old joke, but anyways, the literal translation is "an explosion in the bakery." It's the last one I made, and by then there was not as much clay left in the tube, so it came out unevenly. I have no experience with icing and the tools that bakers use, so it wasn't too easy to fix the damage. Guess I managed somehow, but still it doesn't look as nice as the others.
As I was paying at the counter for the clay and the stickers (I did get them after all), I was thinking, thank goodness I am so bad at kanji, so I don't have interest in buying books... Actually, speaking of books, they have a pretty big English section, with some interesting stuff. Not that I am planning to buy any books there any time soon, but still. I thought that was nice. This store sure beats Chapters. Of course the manga section is enormous too, but I never go in there because most books are sealed, and also because they are expensive. There are quite a few large bookstore chains like "Book Off" (great name, eh?), where you can buy used books in very good condition for rather cheap. For example, one volume of a manga could cost between 150 to 300 yen ($1.5-$3). Not that I bought that many...
Anyways, back to clay sweets, this is what I made.
They look better than the picture, but anyways, you can at least get the idea of what this clay does. It's so interesting, I am very curious about what exactly it's made of.
The tart featured at the top is called "Взрыв на кондитерской фабрике." Not sure I can really translate that properly because it refers to an old joke, but anyways, the literal translation is "an explosion in the bakery." It's the last one I made, and by then there was not as much clay left in the tube, so it came out unevenly. I have no experience with icing and the tools that bakers use, so it wasn't too easy to fix the damage. Guess I managed somehow, but still it doesn't look as nice as the others.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Phone Charges
To add to my post about the money I spend here, this is roughly what my monthly iPhone charges come up to (this includes the phone loan charge too):
８，８７３円
From that amount the internet charge is:
5，700円
(assuming I understood the bill correctly, but I think I did).
So this is with maxing out my internet limit (when I reach a certain threshold, I only pay the maximum amount but not more). The rest are charges for the phone service, calling minutes (I only used 120 yen worth this month, haha), and also the loan money. So not bad, this is pretty much what I expected.
８，８７３円
From that amount the internet charge is:
5，700円
(assuming I understood the bill correctly, but I think I did).
So this is with maxing out my internet limit (when I reach a certain threshold, I only pay the maximum amount but not more). The rest are charges for the phone service, calling minutes (I only used 120 yen worth this month, haha), and also the loan money. So not bad, this is pretty much what I expected.
On the Environment
I think I blogged before about how in Canada, at least in my geography class, Japan is viewed as a country that does little about the environment, even though they signed the Kyoto agreement. On a grand scale it might be true, but I think businesses are doing things on a small scale. For example, Softbank, my phone service provider, charges its customers 315 yen ($315) monthly for receiving a paper bill. When you subscribe to their service initially, they explain this to you and ask you if you want to receive a paper bill. Now that I finally have the opportunity to access my account online, I can see that the online bill is exactly the same as the paper bill (I get one for my land line phone, so I know what it looks like). I think this is a very smart move, because so many people prefer to use internet anyway, and because it saves Softbank labour and paper.
Home
I finished wrapping, writing, cleaning, and most of my other chores, so it's nice to just be home and blog, write emails, or do whatever I want. I can't believe a week of my vacation is already nearly gone. It's nice to have a vacation. I didn't realize how much stuff I needed to do (like figure out some issues with my phone, clean, etc.), until I actually started doing all the stuff.
Softbank and iPhone
Today I went to Softbank, my phone provider, to figure out why I couldn't access their website using my login and password. I still don't know why I couldn't do it, but the girl I talked to fixed it. It was amazing, she was so sweet, even though it took more than an hour I think. I hope she doesn't hate me, haha.
Up till now I have been paying for my phone using my Canadian Visa, because both Softbank and Apple were apparently worried about letting foreigners use the standard withdrawal from the bank account procedure, since the phone is so expensive. It was a majour pain in the neck though, because I have to ask my parents to pay my visa in Canada for me every month, and then I have to pay them back, and then when I try paying them back they will probably be like, oh, don't worry about it. Of course I am grateful if they say that, but since I am earning money, I don't want to accept, so I have to argue with them, and also just asking my mom to transfer money for me every month is troublesome, because I hate asking other people for favours, even if it's my parents. So anyways, long story short, today I asked, if I were to get a Japanese visa, may I use that instead. And the girl goes, sure, visa is ok, direct bank withdrawal is ok too, paying at the post office is fine too. I was so surprised, so I asked, really? Can we change my payment method then? And she goes, let me confirm. She went and talked to another woman, who was making really scary faces, so I thought they couldn't do it after all, but she came back and said, no problem. I was so so happy. This way is infinitely better than using my Canadian visa. So there you go, if you ever want something done in Japan and they say no, go there again and ask a few more times, and they might do it. Good to know :D, because the initial "no, you can only use a credit card to pay" sounded pretty final the first time I talked to them, but they so easily let me do it this time.
In general, I really like customer service here. Even at the post office today the clerks were so kind and so helpful, even though I had such a pile of stuff to mail, and I made some mistakes, and on top of everything I was sending my New Year's cards late (they ask that you drop them off by the 25th, but today is the 26th already).
I am sure people in stores etc. are getting the same wages as in Canada, but I guess all the companies are really demanding of their employees when it comes to customer service.
Up till now I have been paying for my phone using my Canadian Visa, because both Softbank and Apple were apparently worried about letting foreigners use the standard withdrawal from the bank account procedure, since the phone is so expensive. It was a majour pain in the neck though, because I have to ask my parents to pay my visa in Canada for me every month, and then I have to pay them back, and then when I try paying them back they will probably be like, oh, don't worry about it. Of course I am grateful if they say that, but since I am earning money, I don't want to accept, so I have to argue with them, and also just asking my mom to transfer money for me every month is troublesome, because I hate asking other people for favours, even if it's my parents. So anyways, long story short, today I asked, if I were to get a Japanese visa, may I use that instead. And the girl goes, sure, visa is ok, direct bank withdrawal is ok too, paying at the post office is fine too. I was so surprised, so I asked, really? Can we change my payment method then? And she goes, let me confirm. She went and talked to another woman, who was making really scary faces, so I thought they couldn't do it after all, but she came back and said, no problem. I was so so happy. This way is infinitely better than using my Canadian visa. So there you go, if you ever want something done in Japan and they say no, go there again and ask a few more times, and they might do it. Good to know :D, because the initial "no, you can only use a credit card to pay" sounded pretty final the first time I talked to them, but they so easily let me do it this time.
In general, I really like customer service here. Even at the post office today the clerks were so kind and so helpful, even though I had such a pile of stuff to mail, and I made some mistakes, and on top of everything I was sending my New Year's cards late (they ask that you drop them off by the 25th, but today is the 26th already).
I am sure people in stores etc. are getting the same wages as in Canada, but I guess all the companies are really demanding of their employees when it comes to customer service.
Christmas Cake
My friend Eri stayed over yesterday, and since it was Christmas Day, I wanted to try Christmas cake. So we went to a patissiere near my house and got one. It looked beautiful (the picture below doesn't do it justice). It tasted even better. Next year I am definitely getting a Christmas cake again.
In general, cakes are so good here. I've missed good cakes since moving to Canada from Ukraine. Japanese cakes are just as tasty as Ukrainian/Russian cakes, but I think they are even better because they use less sugar and butter, and in general seem to be more light and hence more healthy.
This is what the Christmas cake we had looked like:
In general, cakes are so good here. I've missed good cakes since moving to Canada from Ukraine. Japanese cakes are just as tasty as Ukrainian/Russian cakes, but I think they are even better because they use less sugar and butter, and in general seem to be more light and hence more healthy.
This is what the Christmas cake we had looked like:
Post Cards
WEEEE!!! I am done with my post cards and presents! It only took me three days . Seriously though, it was really fun to make cards this year, because I made my own. They sell stickers, glitter, and all sorts of other card-making supplies, and it's not hard at all, but a lot of fun. It just took me forever because I wrote about 10 cards in Japanese, to my piano and kendo teachers, my landlord, and a friend who doesn't speak English too well. For a whole bunch of them I only had the addresses in kanji, and with no way to know how to read the kanji, I just copied it in kanji. So it took me forever to finish. I actually didn't write that many cards for you guys, my friends in Canada, sorry :P—I wanted to write to all of my friends, but if I did, I'd be writing cards for the entire winter vacation.
I went to the post office today, fearing that I will have to leave half of my paycheck there :P. Well, not half, but I thought I'd have to pay about $200 for the amount of mail I was sending, because I was mailing a bunch of packages with presents for my family, and some of my friends (haha, well, you'll find out in about a week who you are :P). Surprisingly everything together wasn't so bad, it was about $88 in total, and given I was mailing at least 20 packages internationally, and about just as many cards internationally, plus a whole bunch domestically, I thought I got off very easy. So happy! Japanese postal service fees are less than those in Canada, I was really glad.
For those of you who don't get a card from me, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and I hope you have wonderful holidays!
This is what one of the cards I made looks like. Haha, please don't copy my Japanese if you ever decide to send New Year's cards, it might have mistakes.
I went to the post office today, fearing that I will have to leave half of my paycheck there :P. Well, not half, but I thought I'd have to pay about $200 for the amount of mail I was sending, because I was mailing a bunch of packages with presents for my family, and some of my friends (haha, well, you'll find out in about a week who you are :P). Surprisingly everything together wasn't so bad, it was about $88 in total, and given I was mailing at least 20 packages internationally, and about just as many cards internationally, plus a whole bunch domestically, I thought I got off very easy. So happy! Japanese postal service fees are less than those in Canada, I was really glad.
For those of you who don't get a card from me, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and I hope you have wonderful holidays!
This is what one of the cards I made looks like. Haha, please don't copy my Japanese if you ever decide to send New Year's cards, it might have mistakes.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Random
I was reading my favourite food blog, "Just Hungry" (instead of practicing piano for my lesson in two hours), and I came across a mention of this German houseware company named "Koziol". Now, in Russian this word means "goat", but could also be used to double as "idiot" or "stupid" "Ну и козел!"—"Gee, what an idiot!") I thought it's just a similar sounding word, and it means something else in German, but I went to check out their website, and here you have it:
Koziol website
I guess they really did mean "goat". Heh, it's just too funny. I wonder if they actually knew about the connotations of the word when they decided to name their company like that...
Koziol website
I guess they really did mean "goat". Heh, it's just too funny. I wonder if they actually knew about the connotations of the word when they decided to name their company like that...
Tape
I've been writing stuff, and taping stuff, and gluing stuff for over 12 hours now. Still not quite done, but I think at least for the taping part I should be done tomorrow. I just ran out of tape, so given it's nearly 4 AM, I guess it's time to call it a day. No wonder I'm so tired. It was fun though.
Japan Post will make a fortune after I go to drop off the products of my taping :P.
Soooo sleepy.
O_o
This is what my apartment looks like after today's craziness:
Мамай прошел... А такой был порядок вчера вечером...
Japan Post will make a fortune after I go to drop off the products of my taping :P.
Soooo sleepy.
O_o
This is what my apartment looks like after today's craziness:
Мамай прошел... А такой был порядок вчера вечером...
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